Angels of Wrath: Pilot
by Morwen Tindomerel
Summary: Ever wonder what happened to River's classmates?Pilot of a series.
1. Angel of Wrath

Jian Yun stepped delicately, carefully, so she wouldn't break the bubble protecting her from the grungy, quarrelsome people around her. The ship market was set up in a huge, curving bay of Fiddler's Rock, an asteroid in the belt around the orange sun. The floor was steel but the walls were raw rock studded here and there with lock and enviromental controls.

Customers and barkers were an equally rough and ready crew; the men unshaven, the women unkempt, both dressed for the most part in flight suits that had seen better days or T-shirts emblazoned with rude slogans or gunfighter leathers. There were even a few brown coats to be seen, here and there. Yellow Jade glided among them unnoticed, invisible in the safety of her bubble. Securely encased she could actually enjoy seeing and hearing - as long as she didn't have to feel!

Suddenly Kimi was in front of her; uncombed hair glinting copper in the harsh white light, a crocheted tunic pulled over her short, fringed dress. "Jade."

The bubble popped and alien feelings swept over her like a poisonous tide. Jade fought her way to the surface. "You broke it!"

"Sorry. Sonya said to come find you. We've picked a boat." the younger girl held out a hand.

Jade took it and immediately felt steadier, her head well above the flood of other people's emotions. "Okay. Let's see it."

Keri, Kimi's twin, was standing by a battered but aerodynamic hull with a sweep of retractable wings. "It's an angel." she said as they joined her. "It'll take care of us."

"That's what I feel too." said Kimi.

"Good." Jade eyed the riveted plates uncertainly. "How do we get in?"

"Hatch is on the other side."

It opened into a living area with a galley on one wall and a pair of seating units on the other with a tongue of table between them. Keri pressed a wall control and the seats swung out to face each other across a suddenly extended table. "Shiny?"

"Shiny bright." Jade agreed.

Forward was a narrow grill floored passage with two little cabins on one side and a big bunkroom on the other and a control room at the end where they found Sonya and Moon sitting in the pilots' chairs fingering controls.

Moon looked at the smudges on the tips of her long pale fingers with disgust. "It's filthy."

"She'll need cleaning." Sonya agreed.

"And other stuff too." said Moon.

"The pilot will know about that." Sonya shrugged.

"What pilot?" Jade asked.

Sonya swiveled round to face her. "The one we're going to hire. You solid?"

Jade introspected a moment before answering. "Pretty much."

"Twins have been swinging back and forth." the two younger girls made identical moues which Sonya ignored. "Watch out for them. Moon and I will go get our pilot."

Pilots and other hands looking for work hung out in a big, rock cut compartment crowded with little clusters of chairs and tables, walls garish with booths selling food, drink and drugs. Ben sat at alone at one of the tiny metal tables staring moodily into the depths of a red gin.

Short run jobs just didn't bring in enough credit to pay for the compartment he and Cody occupied, much less such fripperies as food and wearables. He needed berth on a ship - but what would he do with his boy? Not much call for ten year old hands!

Ben only noticed the two girls because everybody else did, conversation stopped for five or ten tables round as they passed. The two of them were a mite eye catching at that, not for their feminine charms - they were built like two sticks - but their coloring was pretty striking; one was brown with thick black ringlets and the other pasty white with a short bob the color of a mercury leak. The dark one wore all ruffles under what looked like a genuine leather flight jacket and tattered black hems swirled round her companion's white, white legs, the top half swathed to the chin in a gaudy shawl.

Ben stared along with the rest as the two came to a full stop and the dark one whispered into the pale one's ear. She looked around then her eyes, pale as the rest of her, met Ben's and she pointed - straight at him.

They came over. "H'lo Ben." said the pale one.

He blinked. "You know me?" gorram certain he'd never laid eyes on this pair before in all his life.

"I've Seen you." she answered and plopped into a chair.

"We've been looking for you." the dark one said matter-of-factly. "You're our pilot."

"I am." Ben asked, wondering if maybe somebody'd slipped something a might stronger than gin into his drink.

Dark one nodded. "Moon saw you."

"So she said." Moon eh, appropriate enough. "If I'm your pilot, who are you?"

"Sonya." she answered. "We bought the boat. She's an Angel III but she needs some work."

"Filthy dirty." Moon muttered.

"I was thinking of mechanical stuff." said Sonya, we'll do the cleaning."

An Angel eh? Nice craft. "Take money to make any heap they sell here spaceworthy."

"We got money," Sonya said indifferently, "much as you'll need."

"How about pay?" shut up, Ben, you're not really considering this offer - are you?

"Going rate for pilot and mechanic both - and a seventh cut of any profits."

"And Cody can have his own room." Moon added.

A chill went up his spine. "How'd you know about my boy?"

"I told you, Moon saw. She's a see'er."

A see'er? "I don't believe in that psychic stuff."

"You will." said Sonya. She stood up. "Come see our boat."

And Ben, to his no little bewilderment, found himself following the two weirding girls out of the rest court and down to the docks.

"Better than I'd have thought." he admitted about an hour later, sitting with his five new employers around the table in the living quarters after a through and through inspection of the boat. "Hull needs some new plates -"

"We can do that ourselves." said Yellow Jade on the other side of the table. She smiled at his expression. "We're stronger than we look."

Kind of hard to believe as there didn't seem to be an ounce of muscle or flesh on any of the five. Jade was as thin and frail as her friends with a fall of long yellow hair and a pair of big tilty eyes as black as the Black in her dreamy little face.

Suddenly one of the two little ones, they claimed to be fourteen but didn't look above twelve - and a starved twelve at that, made a high pitched giggle. "Pirates. We're gonna be pirates."

And the other one started singing: 'Sing a song of sixpence, a pocket full of rye -"

Ben looked at Sonya. "They okay?"

"- Four and twenty blackbirds baked in a pie -"

" - Arrr, avast, stand by to be boarded!'

"They're crazy." Sonya said matter-of-factly. "So'm I. So're we all."

Ben blinked.

"- Wasn't that a dainty dish to set before the king?"

"Oh a pirate's life for me!"

"Borderline schizophrenics with paranoid tendencies." Jade said in a coolly clinical voice.

"The paranoia isn't craziness." Moon objected.

"Not all." Jade conceded. "But the delusions, manic phases, panic attacks and the rest are." to Ben. "Nothing you need bother yourself about."

"Huh." he said blankly. He wasn't supposed to bother himself with the fact that his employers and shipmates were loonies?

"We got meds." Sonya explained. "We know how to take care of each other."

"A pirate's life for me!"

"And one or more will always be solid at any given moment." said Jade.

"We can feel ourselves liquifying and know what to do about it." said Moon. She stood up. "Like me, right now." She looked at Sonya. "I want to clean. This place is filthy, the germs are crawling all over - they'll get on us soon."

"Cleaning stuff's on the counter." Sonya said calmly. "Make the twins help."

Moon pulled the two little girls, still singing, out of the seat and after her into the galley.

"Hand work is therapeutic." Jade explained.

"The trouble is inside our heads. The less time we spend there the better." Sonya agreed. "You were saying about the boat?"

"Uh..." took a few minutes to climb back on his train of thought. "Right. Engines look all right but I want everything that can be disassembled taken apart and checked, and anything wearable replaced."

"We can do that too." said Jade.

"Under my supervision." said Ben

"'Course," said Sonya. "What else?"

"A computerman to make sure this boat's 'brain' is sane."

"Even if its owners' aren't." Sonya said lightly.

"Moon knows computers." said Jade.

Ben shook his head. "I know the chum I want." No way he was letting an self described crazy girl work on their astrogation and piloting boards!

The two loonies he was talking to just shrugged. "If that's the way you want it." said Sonya.

They stood up. "Why don't you go get Cody and your gear," Jade suggested, "when you get back we can start taking the engines apart."

Ben got up too. "Sure...right. I can register the boat too. Does she have a name?"

Both girls smiled, an eerie, eldritch smile that sent the chills down his spine. It was Sonya that answered him: "She's the Angel of Wrath."


	2. Histories

Ben got used to bursts of song and nonsense talk from his shipload of crazy girls but save for that he didn't see much of their loony side. Maybe keeping them busy helped, just as Sonya had said.

He'd been a little worried about how the craziness would affect Cody but the ten year old took it right in stride. If Keri or Kimi suddenly started jabbering non-sequiturs at him whilst they were playing he'd just say right out; 'that's crazy talk, remember what we're doing?' which seemed to have a good effect. Ben tried it himself with equally fine results. Making the girls focus on the here and now seemed to 'solidify' them as they put it.

Even so taking to the Black with a shipload of admitted head cases didn't make a whole lot of sense but there was no walking away from them. No decent man could let five pretty young things like these wander the outer worlds alone. To many wolves slavering for just such little lambs.

Only occasionally did their odd side cause real problems, like when it came to provisioning: "No Blue Sun products. Not any." Sonya told him firmly.

That took him aback some. "What, Why not? They're just the biggest provider we've got on this rock."

"The suns watch you, get inside your head, they'll help them find us."

Ben tried his usual line. "That's crazy talk. We need to provision this boat."

"Not with Blue Sun." Sonya said firm and loud.

They were on the bridge with Jade nearby working on some wiring. She overheard, "Blue Suns?" she asked, big eyes getting even bigger with fright. "Where, where are they?"

"You can't let them onboard!" Sonya said, an edge of hysteria in her voice. "You can't!"

"Where are they? Where?" Jade began digging frantically through the wires, tearing the com unit apart looking.

Ben hurried to grab her hands. "They're not here." he said. "They'll never get on board, I promise."

Both girls sagged in relief. Ben made a mental note: No Blue Sun.

Alliance Moon, Five Weeks Before:

The Academy looked nice enough on the surface, even beautiful; a big, rambling castellated structure built around three quadrangles, one enclosing a carefully kept sand garden, the whole surrounded by green lawns with a little wooded park on one side and a lake on the other. All the pain and nastiness was hidden away in the cold, sterile levels hollowed beneath the picturesque school buildings.

Five girls sat in the stone gazebo at the center of the main quadrangle. Five when there should have been six. River was gone, her brother had gotten her out and her parents were furious. Sonya could feel them - angry and scared - a floor up behind the big stained glass windows of the Headmaster's office. Matthias felt angry and impatient but he couldn't show it - not to the Tams, they were way too important to offend. The five girls, could hear every word spoken in the office - though not with their ears.

Mrs. Tam was crying, hopeless choking sobs that she couldn't stop no matter how she tried.

Mr. Tam's panic fed his fury: "How does an obsessed boy just walk into a government school and take his sister without a hand raised to stop him?" he snarled at Matthias.

The doctor had much bigger worries than the Tams, but he was under orders to sooth them down as best he could. He tried: "Dr. Tam was her brother, sir. The staff saw no reason why he shouldn't be allowed to visit River. I assure you he was not given permission to remove her from the campus. However it didn't occur to us to set a guard over them."

"Simon would never hurt River, I know he wouldn't." Mrs. Tam sobbed.

"Of course not, sweetheart." her husband said quickly, hiding his own fears. "But he's likely to get them both into all kinds of trouble the way he's been acting these last two years." he turned back to Matthias. "My son is a very disturbed young man," he said with dignity, refusing to let his heartbreak show. "Maybe we pushed him too hard..." his voice trailed off.

"He was never the same after River left." Mrs. Tam managed. "I don't think we ever understood what she meant to him."

"He became obsessed with getting her back." Mr. Tam continued. "He read things into her letters, claimed she was in some kind of danger -"

"Oh now really -" Matthias began, alarmed.

"His delusion became so strong he started consorting with criminals, trying to hire them to kidnap his own sister!"

"We should have done more than we did." wept Mrs. Tam.

"What more could we do?" her husband demanded frustrated. "Simon's an adult, he moved out of the house, we had no control over him!"

"I assure you every possible effort is being made to find both your children." Matthias said quickly. "Every law enforcement agency in the Alliance has been alerted. We're sure to hear something very soon."

Sonya's lips quirked in a cynical smile as she pulled herself back into her own head. So the doctor hoped but Simon Tam had been smart enough to get River out, there was a good chance he was smart enough to keep her safe.

"They're coming." said Moon.

Sonya nodded. "Places everybody."

Yellow Jade headed for the door to the east wing, Moon to the wrought iron gate leading to the second quadrangle, Sonya stationed herself by the front door, the twins stayed in the gazebo. Pretty soon there were footsteps and the Tams emerged accompanied by Matthias' assistant.

Sonya intercepted them. "Dr. Han," she said to the escort, catching and holding his eye. "Kimi and Keri are in trouble again." she pointed at the gazebo. "They need your help."

Muttering an excuse he went. She looked at the Tams. "Hello. My name is Sonya, I'm River's best friend."

His girls handed Ben the real shocker over breakfast one morning, early in the refitting:

"Weapons!" he sputtered. "What do you want weapons for?"

"To kill people with of course." said Moon.

"We need to defend our selves." Sonya explained

"We want beamers -" said Keri

"And shooters." her twin finished.

"Shiny!" said Cody enthusiastically, not helping at all.

"And a defensive screen." said Jade anxiously. "Don't forget the screen."

"Right." Sonya agreed. "We want two of each kind of gun and we'll mount them top and bottom, one set facing forward the other back."

Ben was floundering in a sea of dismay. "You serious about turning pirate?"

"Yes." said the twins in chorus.

"No." said Sonya. They glared at her. "Well maybe from time to time to keep the kids happy." the twins beamed. So did Cody.

"Angel's a freighter," Ben said forcing calm, he'd learned the hard way that getting excited only made his girls 'liquefy' faster. "We can make a good living hauling cargo." A bit of an exaggeration that.

"We can do that to." Moon said, just as calm.

"Mainly though we'd planned to sell ourselves." said Jade.

Ben choked sending caff spraying all over the table. The girls giggled.

"Not that way!" Jade laughed.

"We got skills." said Sonya.

"Hacking and spying and stealing and killing." said Moon, counting them off on her long white fingers.

Killing?

"We purpose to make as much trouble for the Alliance as we can." Keri explained

"Any way we can." Kimi added.

"And we got a lot of ways." said Moon with a sinister smile. Sonya and Jade both nodded agreement wearing that same smile.

"Making the Alliance bleed should be agreeable to you." said Sonya.

Ben swallowed carefully. "It is. But why -?"

The five girls looked at each other then Sonya, who usually spoke for them nodded. "We know your reasons so it's only fair you should know ours."

Alliance Moon, Five Weeks Before:

"Simon isn't crazy." Sonya told the Tams earnestly. "He got River's message. They hurt us here and she wanted out." the two grown-ups stared at her blankly. Sonya pointed to a tiny puncture in the middle of her forehead. "That's how they inject drugs into my brain." she showed the multiple needle marks on her arm: "And that's where they feed me the psychotropics that open me up to them."

Mrs. Tam was clutching her husband's arm but she'd stopped crying. Mr. Tam stared at the little wounds in dawning horror.

"Make them stop." said Sonya. "You're too important for them to just kill like they did Moon's parents. Stop them for River, or she'll never be able to come home." Jade and Moon came up behind her as she was talking. "Look, we all have them and River did too. We're the top class, the ones they've done the most to. River was the star, they want her back alright but for them, not for you."

"You'll never see her or Simon again as long as this place stands." said Moon.

"Or maybe even if you bring it down." that was Jade. "We're the top class, we're too important to them. They'll never let us go."

"But it's not too late for the others." Sonya pleaded. "They can still go free - if you stop Matthias."

Ben had thought he'd plumbed the depths of the Alliance's evil on Shadow. He'd been wrong. He listened in mounting horror as Sonya calmly unfolded their story, with the help of her classmates.

"You had to be very special to get sent to the Academy, not just super-smart but a little bit psychic."

"Nobody's more than a little - naturally that is." said Jade.

"It was a training school for operatives. Very special operatives." Sonya continued. "At first I wasn't adverse to it -"

"None of us were - at first." said Moon.

Sonya nodded. "They taught us to do all the stuff Moon mentioned; to hack and spy and steal and fight and kill. That part wasn't so bad but then they started doing things to our brains, to make us more psychic."

"And that's when it turned horrible." said Kimi, her twin nodded violent agreement.

"They made us crazy," Moon said coldly, "because you can't be sane and psychic at the same time."

Ben swallowed. "What good are crazy operatives?"

"Dr. Matthias claimed he could fix that little problem." Jade said bitterly. "Truth is he liked playing around with people's brains and didn't much care about the results."

"Why all girls?" Cody asked.

"Oh there were boys at the school." Sonya answered. "Lots of them. But push 'em past a certain point they go psycho and then they burn out."

"Dr. Matthias was going to fix that too - when he got round to it." said Jade.

"We were the top class, the best of the lot." said Sonya.

"And River was the best of us all." said Keri.

"That's right. River Tam was the star, Dr. Matthias' pride and joy, until her brother walked in one day and took her away."

Alliance Moon, Five Weeks Before:

A patter of feet on the stairs preceded the breathless arrival of Dr. Matthias. "Sonya, my dear," he said, struggling to look kindly and avuncular, "whatever are you girls doing here?"

"We were studying in the gazebo," Sonya answered innocently. "We wanted to tell Mr. and Mrs. Tam how much we liked River and how we miss her."

Matthias turned apprehensively to the Tams. Regan buried her face in her handkerchief but Gabriel made a heroic effort and produced a smile. "It's good to know River was happy here. She never had any friends at home, you know. That's one of the reasons we sent her your school - to be with children like herself."

The doctor was not a sensitive man. He believed it and relaxed. "Allow me to see you to the gate." he looked around. "Where is Han anyway?"

"In the gazebo." said Sonya. "The twins weren't well, he went to help them."

Mrs. Tam lowered her handkerchief. Her eyes were red but determined, she leaned forward to kiss Sonya right on her puncture wound, then the other two in turn. "Thank you, dears, for everything."

"The Tams are good people. They believed me right off, I didn't have to make them."

"They'd been having doubts, all they needed was proof." said Jade.

"What do you mean, 'make them'?" Ben wanted to know.

"We've all got a special talent on top our basic psychicness." Sonya explained. "Mine is 'persuading' I can generally make people do what I want them to."

"Like sign aboard your ship?" Ben asked, suddenly suspicious.

She shook her head. "Wasn't necessary. You decided our way all on your own. Just like the Tams."

"We got away with talking to them so easy it gave us other ideas." said Moon with an icy, reminiscent smile.

"Yeah." said Sonya, and they all made smiles that chilled Ben inside.

"What kind of ideas?"


	3. I Can Kill You With My Mind

"What kind of ideas?" Cody echoed eagerly.

Sonya shot Ben a veiled glance before answering. "About escaping. Getting out of the complex was never a problem, lots of kids ran away for a while - "

"But there was nowhere to go." said Keri.

"Right. Sooner or later you had to go back." Sonya agreed.

"They never did anything to you for it - but they looked so gorram smug!" muttered Moon.

"The Tams had a twenty-four hour clearance, we knew they'd be leaving that night so we -"

"Stowed away!" Cody interrupted.

Sonya shook her head. "No. We asked them to take us, and they agreed. Like I said, they're good people. When we got back to Osiris the group who'd helped Simon Tam get River out contacted their parents, according to them River and Simon were heading for Boros so we decided to meet them there."

"Only they never showed." said Kimi.

"Caught?" Ben asked.

Sonya shook her head. "No. We'd have known if they were."

"Don't know what happened to them or where they are but we're almost sure they're safe." put in Jade.

"We'd feel it if something bad happened to River." Moon said with certainty.

Kimi wiggled. "We miss River."

"A lot." said her twin.

"According to Moon there's a fair chance we'll find her someday, but in the meantime we've got to keep moving." Sonya explained.

"They're after us." Jade said darkly.

"Orange and Black" said Keri

"And dripping with blood." added Kimi.

"They're tracking you through the credit accounts you're using." Ben guessed.

"Yeah. But we're well ahead of them." Sonya assured him.

"Laid a lot of false trails." said Moon with satisfaction.

"They trained us to be good, and we are." from Jade, very matter of fact.

"Better than anybody they can hire." sniffed Keri.

"Much better." said Kimi.

"The trail ends here." Sonya continued. "We won't draw on those accounts again."

"Won't have to." said Moon.

Some while later Ben found himself alone on the bridge with Sonya, hooking in the new navigation unit. "So," he said quietly. "What about the rest of it?"

She looked at him with black rimmed yellow eyes. "You mean how we got clear without being chased?"

He nodded.

They chose their targets carefully. Not only to create maximum confusion but to cripple the functioning of the school as much as they could. They couldn't take the others with them, but they could give them a chance.

Jade drew Dr. Falkener, the neurological specialist. The one who designed the 'experiments'. He sat in his darkened office, working at his computer, and looked up in annoyance when she entered. "What are you doing here Jian Yun?"

"'This person is come to kill you.'" she answered in Chinese, gliding softly over the deep pile carpet.

His fat white face showed more annoyance, not fear. He reached for the call button on his desk but she was close enough to catch his hand. Before he could react she opened herself up like a yawing black hole, watched in satisfaction as his face twisted in agony. She could feel it too as she drained him dry; sucking thought, knowledge, memory, life energy itself out of his body, but this was an agony she could and did enjoy. She drank in his pain as he'd drunk of hers, and his other victims. It was the perfect revenge. It was plain justice.

She released his wrist and he slumped forward over the desk, a trickle of blood leaking from his gaping mouth. She stood there a moment, smiling, savoring her handiwork. Then she pressed the call button herself - and left.

Moon picked Franklin Yu, the head of security. She owed him for all those smug smirks...and for her parents. He hadn't killed them, no. But it was because of him they'd died. He was the one who'd labeled them 'security risks'. And while she was at it she'd take out as many of his men as she could. They deserved it no less.

She walked into the security wardroom and kicked backward, smashing and jamming the door control with her heel. The men looked up from their cards and magazines, started to rise, a few going for their side arms.

Moon was too fast for them, hand springing into their midst and taking out the nearest two with a chest crunching side kick and larynx crushing finger jab. She spun to catch another under the chin with her toe, his head snapping back severing his spine as she simultaneously picked up one of the small metal tables to ram backhanded, edge on, into a fourth guard's solar plexus. He doubled over, face meeting the table top as she jabbed it upward then swung it around to mow down two more.

Dropping the table Moon spurned one of the fallen men's head under her foot - feeling the cranial bones crack and give - as she launched herself into an high somersault over the head of a guard drawing a bead on her - his stun beam hit one of his comrades instead. Landing behind him she delivered a short, sharp kick impacting the base of his spine and felt it snap. His body arched backward, she grabbed his head and gave it an expert twist the neck bones cracked.

The four remaining guards were hammering at the jammed door. Almost casually Moon picked up a fallen stunner and nailed them; wham! wham! wham! wham!

She stood easy, not even breathing fast, then turned towards the inner door just as it opened. Yu came out, followed by his adjutant. She gave them a moment to absorb the situation then hurled the stunner with expert and murderous intent at the aid. The solid metal impacted his jaw snapping his head against the doorframe. he fell.

Smiling Moon advanced on the chief. "You don't get it so easy. I'm gonna take my time with you, Yu."

The twin's target was inanimate, the kids called it the 'torture chamber'. Staff called it the 'sleep training room'. The lights were all on, the machines quiescent, the chair empty. For a long moment the twins stood quietly, side by side, in their starchy school uniforms, copper brown hair hanging down their backs in identical braids. Then, suddenly, stuff started moving.

The chair lurched and twisted, bolts groaning and snapping as it pulled itself out of the floor to fly straight and true into the vitals monitor board which exploded in a satisfying shower of sparks. Then the other boards began rocking, bucking, sparking, exploding. The sprinklers came on, showering girls and machinery alike. A door slammed open as the duty tech rushed in. Electronic components penetrated his body like bullets and he fell bleeding from a dozen wounds.

Metal screamed as the PK storm increased in violence. Chair and machines shreded, shrapnel scoring the plastic wall panels as they too began to buckle and disintegrate. Lighting fixtures exploded in blinding flashes of actinic yellow and blue then crashed to the floor. Even the tiles started to peel up.

And the two little girls stood untouched in the red emergency light, fire retardant soaking their clothes and hair. Smiling, smiling as they unleashed all their stored up hate and rage on the instruments of their pain.

Franklin Yu slammed against a wall and slid down it, his smashed face leaving a trail of blood. Moon's foot caught him in in the thigh as he tried to roll clear and bone snapped. He screamed.

The man they wanted worse than any of them, Matthias himself, wasn't available. He'd left the complex for New Washington as soon as the Tam's had left. So Sonya had to settle for his deputy, Agnes Diop. She was a tall, skeletal woman with dark skin that seemed to be melting off her. Her mind was as ugly as her body and she was deathly afraid of drowning.

She turned sharply as Sonya entered the Headmaster's office. "What are you doing here? All students should be in the refectory."

Sonya caught and held those beady black eyes. "The water is rising."

"Wha..What?"

The water is rising. Can't you hear it? lapping and gurgling..."

"No..." the black eyes began to glaze.

"Listen for it, it's coming closer, closer. It's sliding under the door. See it spread? silver shading to blue as it gets deeper. Its up to our ankles now."

Diop shrieked in fright and ran to the walls, feeling frantically for a way out...

Moon nudged Yu's crumpled, bloodstained body with a toe. Yep, he was dead. She sighed. "All good things must come to an end."

Walking into his office she saw the situations board sparkling with red lights. The others must be doing well. She opened a cabinet and took out a slender, needler pistol and went back to the wardroom. Moving methodically from body to body she gave the quietus to the ones who were still alive.

Diop was on the floor, thrashing and choking.

"The water is closing over your head," Sonya intoned, "it fills your lungs, you're downing, dying."

The woman thrashed some more, then suddenly stopped. Stopped moving, stopped breathing, died.

Calmly Sonya stepped over her body to touch a concealed control on the big mahogany desk. A panel slid open revealing a safe. A safe containing all the good doctor's records - and the staff's credit chips.

"We killed them with what they gave us." Sonya smiled a nasty little grin that didn't belong on a pretty girl's face. "Hoist on their own petard."

Ben's mouth was set in a grim line. "Thanks for not going into all that in front of Cody."

"You don't have to worry," She looked at him straight. "Last thing we want is for your boy to get like us. Nor to give him a horror of us neither. Cody's good for the twins. Teach them how to be kids again, maybe it's not too late - for them."

Ben said nothing. He could see, clear as she, that it was way too late for Moon or Jade or Sonya herself.

She stared out the ports at the busy dockside. "It was good at first. I'd never had friends I could really talk to before. I even had a boyfriend." she turned back to Ben, a sheen of tears in her eyes. "They showed us happiness and then they took it all away. I'll never forgive them for that. Never. None of us will."

"Nor should you." said Ben.

Now it was his turn to stare unseeingly out the port. Killing dreams, ruining happiness, destroying peace of mind was what the Alliance did best.


	4. Or My Hands

Other things than ships could be bought in Fiddler's Rock, in fact it was something of an emporium for the Belt and outer planets of Orange system. You could buy most anything in Fiddler's, of course what wasn't smuggled was stolen but that made no never mind to the girls seeing as they were set on becoming criminals themselves.

The main market was a huge cavern in the center of the rock, its roughly smoothed floor crowded with vendors' stalls and some five or six levels of shops carved in the soaring walls, loud with neon and reached by a rickety metal gallery spiraling up to the lumpy, craggy ceiling.

Smaller, specialized markets opened off it at various levels. Ben vanished down one such tunnel with Cody, they were going to buy them a cargo. Made sense, they'd need cash money as they wouldn't be using the credit chips after this.

And so the girls went on a shopping spree of their own, buying things for both the boat and themselves. Sonya and the twins liked jewelry and bought themselves lots of beads and bangles from various vendors on the floor. Another booth was selling colorful paisley shawls and jackets, all five girls bought there. Jade found herself a number of loose, colorful garments decorated with beads and shells and shisha mirrors. The twins pounced on a selection of colorful ceramic horses in another stall and Moon bought herself a colorfully dressed stuffed doll that sang the Kang Ding love song when you pressed a button in her back.

They had cartload of stuff even before they began to climb the gallery. The shops had fancier, more expensive goods. Entering a huge fabric store they bought bales of carpets and drapes, billowy colorful silk cushions, deep piled fringed throws and quilted comforters, arranging for them to be sent to the boat. They found a painted dish cupboard, complete with dishes, in a furniture store. A carved and painted table with drawers, little trapezoidal chests and a set of low, elaborately inlaid stack tables. These too were sent direct to the 'Angel'.

A clothing boutique absorbed them for some time, their buyings filling up another cart. Then there was more jewelry, this time of precious stones rather than glass. Moon, who liked to make-up, bought herself a variety of cosmetics and a clutch of beautiful glass vials of perfume. They found a store that sold furs, dyed and natural, for wearing and for decorating. A toy store where they bought board games and cards, stuffed animals and dolls, miniatures and models and electronic games of all kinds. There was another shop full of delicate porcelain figurines and one selling painted scrolls and screens and calligraphy sets. They bought boxes and vases and object of art and lots and lots of books and by the time they descended to the floor to meet their menfolk each of them was pulling a fully loaded cart.

Ben laughed at the sight of them. "Girls surely do like their pretties." he said, obscurely reassured. Crazy killers or not his little charges were still girly girls.

They smiled brightly back, though being tired the older girls were also getting somewhat liquid. The twins were solid enough though. "What cargo did you get?" Kimi asked.

"Trans-uranic ores." he answered. "We can stop at Vulcan on our way out-system and trade them for refined metals."

"Sounds good." Sonya held out her hand and he dropped the credit chip he'd been using into it. As they started across the market floor towards the dock gate she let fall one, then the other. Ben looked his interest and she explained: "This is how we get rid of chips and lay false trails at the same time."

"Folks who find them use them, and the Orange and Blacks waste their time tracking them instead of us." Moon added.

Ben opened his mouth to ask exactly who or what these Orange and Blacks were but was forestalled - maybe on purpose.

"What's Vulcan like?" Keri asked, skipping beside him.

"Red and smoky." Ben told her. "Lives up to its name."

"Vulcan was the Greek god of the Forge." said Jade, stepping delicately in her bubble.

Ben nodded. "The whole planet's one giant mine and refinery. Lots of coal and oil to be found so they burn that, but there's a market for high energy ores."

"You've been there before?" from Kimi.

"Lots of times." said Cody.

"Plenty of traffic between Vulcan and the Belt." added his father.

Ben came to a full stop, jaw dropping, at the sight of the bales, bundles and boxes waiting by the 'Angel', attended by a crew of hopeful porters. "Great Flaming Meteors! Did you buy out the market?"

"We got stuff for the ship." Keri told him. "Furniture and the like."

"Most of it's for our room." put in Sonya.

Ben shook his head. "Just hope we got space for it all."

Of course they did, but the crew bunk was filled almost to overflowing 'til Ben wondered if the girls would be able to squeeze themselves in. Still there'd be more room when they got it all stowed. Then the ores arrived and he was busy seeing to the loading and checking over the lead lined cases for leaks. Then double checking with the 'counter to be certain sure the hold was no hotter loaded than it'd been empty. Ben wasn't taking any chances at all with a crew of kids on board.

Maybe it was all the deliveries that attracted the boat-jackers attentions. They were clearing away dinner when the signal sounded on the lock door. Before Ben could stop her Keri had slid back the bolt and was nearly knocked off her feet as the hatch shoved all the way open and a foursome of grungy, weapon wielding men forced their way inside.

An evil grin cracked the face of the foremost as he took in the staring girls. "Lookee here, seems like we got ourselves some pretty little bonuses."

Ben took a moment to shove Cody and Jade, who were the nearest to hand, behind the meager shelter of the kitchen counter before approaching the invaders slowly, hands open. At the same time they spread into the room, covering the girls who watched with blank eyes, as if they didn't quite understand what was happening.

"Don't be in such a hurry," Ben began, speaking to the leader, "maybe we can come to some arrangement.." if he could just get close enough - unluckily the 'jacker boss had the same thought, he swung out with his machine rifle catching Ben full on the side of the head with the barrel.

From the floor he saw little Keri drive her fist into a particular spot on 'jacker's lower back, as Kimi shoved the heel of her hand upward under his chin. Ben distinctly heard the man's neck snap.

Across the room Sonya kicked the intruder covering her in the solar plexus, spinning to strike him in the temple with the heel of her other foot as he bent double.

The third man had time to open fire, powdering the compartment wall as Moon dropped below his line of sight to sweep him off his feet with a long, slicing leg then rise to bring her foot down hard on his chest, crushing it.

And Jade rose from behind the counter, a long carving knife in her hand to throw it with flawless accuracy right into the throat of the final 'jacker covering the door.

Still dazed from the blow Ben gaped. It was one thing to hear his girls had killed assorted folk, quite another to see them do it with his own two eyes.

His deadly 'lil darlings stood there, the meat bleeding at their feet and looked to him for guidance. "What do we do now?" Sonya asked.

Ben forced his mouth shut and pulled himself to his feet. "Shove 'em in the lock. We'll jettison as soon as we're clear of the pull of this rock."

"We're leaving?" Keri asked eagerly.

He nodded. "Right this minute, before anybody else gets ideas." A blond head with round blue eyes peered over the edge of the counter. Ben's heart contracted painfully but, he reminded himself that the outer worlds being what they were his boy was likely to be seeing the sight of violent death with some regularity from now on. "Cody, I need you to ride co-pilot."

The boy tore his eyes off the dead men, and trotted after his father up the passage to the bridge. Ben slid into the pilot's seat and started the launch cycle. "Wave control and tell 'em we're going." he said to Cody.

The exchange with Fiddler traffic control was brief. "Departure vector Nine-niner-oh-eight." Cody told his father. "Dad, they killed them!"

"Had too, son." Ben said keeping his eyes determinedly on the control board. "It was them or us."

"I know. But they killed them with their bare hands!"

"Yes they did." Ben sighed. "Our girls were taught some nasty things at that school of theirs."

Cody seemed uncomfortably easy with what he'd seen. Easy enough to bother his father more than a little. "Think they could teach me to do that?"

"No." Ben said firmly.

"But - "

"I said no, son!"

Bad enough teen-age girls had been turned into killers. His boy wasn't going down that path - not if Ben had anything to say about it!

Note:

The 'verse is clearly a multi star system, (see Miranda map in 'Serenity') I count at least five stars; a white giant, white dwarf, yellow dwarf, an orange and a red. Each seems to have its own system of planets and moons. I have named the suns and their systems by color.


	5. Shakedown

Ben sat alone on the bridge, the Angel purring round him her lights winking peaceful green and blue. Stars studded the Black outside the ports, some of the bright points ships riding the line to Vulcan like themselves. Cody'd been sent to bed - hopefully he'd stay there - and the girls who weren't napping were unpacking and arranging their new belongings. Ben had learned during the refit that his girls never slept more than an hour or so at a time - 'because of the nightmares.' Keri had explained.

He had a padd on his knee and typed:

Crew Manifest

Me: Master and Pilot

Mechanic.

Then paused considering. Sonya and the twins had all demonstrated a genuine knack for mechanics; Moon really was good with computers - gorram brilliant in fact - but she was also the most volatile and unpredictable of his girls. Jade followed schematics and plans perfectly but didn't seem very interested - in anything... He frowned and put that thought aside for later consideration.

After a time he started typing again:

Crew Manifest

Me: Master and Pilot

Sonya: Co-pilot (trainee)

Cody: Relief Pilot (trainee)

Moon: Computer and Communications Tech.

(little boats didn't usually bother with such but it would give Moon duties to do without upsetting his calm too much.)

Me: First Mechanic

Kimi and Keri: Second and Third Mechanics (trainees)

Jade: Cook and Quartermaster

Cody: Asst. Cook and Quartermaster

(to keep Jade from burning the food in one of her trances and to double check her accounts.)

He considered some more then stored the doc. and started a new one:

Boat Routine

0700 hrs: Reveille

0745-0900: Breakfast (Twins police kitchen afterwards)

0900-1200: Pilot training (Sonya and Cody)

Chores (Twins and Moon)

1215-1300: Lunch (Cody polices kitchen afterwards)

1300-1600: Mechanics training (Twins)

Cortex Schooling (Cody assisted by Moon)

Chores (Sonya)

1600-1800: Free time for Crew

Chores (Jade)

1800-1845: Dinner (Moon and Sonya police kitchen afterwards)

2200 hrs: Lights Out.

Bedtime for Cody

Girls to stay in their bunk 'til Reveille

Saturday: Captain's inspection 1300 hrs.

Sunday: We rest

He studied the doc. slowly shook his head. "Why do I have the feeling this ain't gonna work?"

Walking wearily aft to his bed Ben stopped stock still in the hatchway, the living area'd undergone some changes!

A big, colorful, multi-textured rug now covered most of the deck and there was a white linen cloth and brocaded runner on the stub of table with an intricate arrangement of silk flowers and polished stones in its middle. The plastic seats were heaped with cushions and furs, as was the big bowl chair wedged into the corner between the kitchen and the forward bulkhead. A painted cupboard stood against the back of the counter with china plates, cups and tableware wrapped in napkins all laid out atop it ready for breakfast. And a silk screen painted with a pretty summer garden scene hung above table and seats on the long port bulkhead.

Ben shook his head wonderingly. "Y' know what they say about a 'woman's touch'!"

He handed out copies of his routine and individual sheets of maintenance chores over a catch as catch can breakfast the next morning.

Cody beamed at the sight of 'pilot training' and groaned over the cortex schooling.

Ben didn't budge. "You're gonna to get a decent education if I have to shove it down your throat, boy!"

"But three whole hours a day!"

"Our school was twenty-four seven." Keri told him.

"Yeah, even when we were asleep." added her twin.

That shut Cody up.

"I don't know how to cook." Jade said into the ensuing silence.

"Just follow the directions on the boxes and cans." Ben answered. "Cody will answer any questions you might have."

Taking instruction from a ten year old didn't seem to phase her none. "Okay."

Moon thrust out an underlip. "Why do we have to stay in our room at night?" she demanded.

"Because I don't want self confessed crazy girls wandering over my ship when I'm not awake to watch over them." Ben answered bluntly.

"That's reasonable." said Sonya, pointedly cutting off whatever Moon had opened her mouth to say. She looked at Jade. "We got stuff to do."

The corners of Jade's mouth went down in response. Ben thought about asking what - then decided he was better off not knowing.

Sonya was frowning over her copy of the schedule. "We're not always going to be in condition to follow this." she warned.

"I understand that." Ben assured her. "Just do your best. You said keeping busy helped."

"It does," she shrugged, "but even so there'll be spells."

"We'll deal." said Ben, hoping he could.

The first week passed peacefully enough. Of course Jade did elect to spend two days of it curled in the big chair staring at nothing. A simple stylus set Moon off into a fit of shrill, keening laughter that raised the hairs on Ben's neck and lasted for nearly three hours. Sonya spent a piloting lesson talking so calmly and rationally about the furred whales swimming outside the ports that Ben found himself looking for them. And there was a bit of a to-do when Kimi hid herself in the hold and wouldn't come out for thirty-six hours while her twin wailed and sobbed in hysterics.

Could have been worse Ben told himself, climbing wearily into bed Friday night. He should have known better.

He woke abruptly in the wee hours and lay there a moment wondering why. Then it came again, muffled by metal bulkheads, faint but unmistakable; the high shrill screams of a very young girl. Ben hurtled out of bed, heedless of his state of undress, out his door and through the one opposite slamming the hatch behind him and praying Cody wouldn't wake.

For a moment all he could see was a blur of light and color, mixed perfumes tickling his nose as screams assaulted his ears. As his eyes adjusted he made out the layers of rugs on the floor and hangings muffling the walls, saw the twins, arms wrapped tight around each other, huddled in a nest of pillows and at the opposite end of the room a big bronzy-gold tub, water sloshing out of it as a thin brown figure flailed and struggled.

It was Sonya, bare naked, eyes round and glassily staring, mouth wide and working as shrieks poured out of it. Moon and Jade, scantily clad themselves in wet and clinging nighties, were trying to hold her down. A long needle glinted in Jade's hand, sank into the inner elbow of Sonya's flapping arm. The screams rose to a shrill, siren-like crescendo then cut off as she flopped back into the water, almost going under.

"What in the seventh circle of Hell do you think you're doing!" Ben roared into the sudden quiet.

Four pairs of startled eyes - Sonya's were closed - turned on him. It was Moon who answered. "Undoing is more like it."

"Say that again?"

Moon walked towards him, thin face grim. "They planted suggestions and triggers to control us at the school. When Jade sucked Dr. Falkener dry she got what he knew about what they'd done to us. And some knowledge of how it might be undone."

"Sonya insisted on going first - 'cause she's the oldest." said Jade, finally taking her eyes off her now comatose classmate.

"It's not much fun." said Moon.

"There's an understatement for you." Ben took several deep breaths as his thundering heart slowed and his blood pressure sank towards normal. To Jade: "Is it working."

She pushed sweat soaked strings of blond hair out of her face. "I'm not sure yet. She's showing all the right reactions though."

"That screaming's a right reaction?" He asked, disbelieving.

"We always did a lot of screaming when they worked on us." Jade answered flatly.

Ben winced then looked at the twins, shivering in their nest of pillows. "They have to watch this?"

"You told us not to leave our room after lights out." Moon reminded him.

Ben sucked in a breath. "So I did. You planning on doing this every night?"

Heads shook. "Once or maybe twice a week." said Jade.

"Need time to recover in between treatments." said Moon.

No doubt they did. "All right, nights you do this the girls not involved can use my bunk." he turned to the twins, gentling his voice. "Come on Kimi, Keri, let's us get out of here and leave your elders to their work."

They just stared at him. Moon went over and pulled them up. "You heard, Ben, get out of here." she steered them firmly into the passage, Ben right behind. "At least we didn't wake Cody." she said dropping her voice. "How'd you come to hear us anyway?"

He smiled crookedly. "I'm a father. Sharpens the ears."

"I guess so." Moon said and went back into the bunk closing the hatch behind her.

Ben looked down at the twins, small and pitiful in their flowered nighties, bare little feet showing pale against the darkish metal grating of the floor. "Why don't we have some cocoa before we try to go back to sleep?"

It took two cups apiece before they began to unwind but by the time he'd tucked them into the bed in his bunk the eyelids were drooping. He could only pray they wouldn't be waked by bad dreams this night.

He took himself up to the bridge and settled into the pilot's chair. Searching the Black through the ports he saw Big White, Sihnon and Londinium's sun, burning in the lower starboard quadrant and looked at it with hate for the smug bureaucrats it shone on.

"Damn you." he whispered to the unhearing night. "Damn you bastards all!"


	6. Landfall and Trouble

"Moon's right, you do have good legs."

Ben started awake and twisted round in the pilot's seat to see Sonya, conscious and apparently well, attired in her usual ruffles and beads, standing in the hatch.

"Thanks." he glanced briefly at the hairy appendages beneath his sleep shorts 'good legs'? then returned his attention to the girl. "You okay?"

"Better, much better." she answered with visible satisfaction, slipping into the co-pilot's chair.

At close range Ben could see the purple circles under her eyes, inexpertly covered with the wrong shade of make-up. "If you say so." he said dubiously.

"I do. I'm sorry we woke you though. Thanks for taking the twins out of there - Jade and Moon tell me it was nasty to watch."

"And to experience?"

She shrugged. "It was worth it. Eta Kooram Nah Smech."

Ben blinked. "Pardon?"

"Safewords, encoded into us so they could control us." she grinned happily. "Doesn't work on me anymore but it'll send any of the others straight to sleep."

"Oh." Ben thought about that. "So what Jade was doing worked?"

Sonya nodded. "She peeled off the first level of conditioning but she's going to have to dig deep to get rid of it all."

Ben winced. "Will it always be so noisy?"

"Hope not." Sonya looked at him gravely. "We're all chock full of triggers and such, including River. That's why we've got to find her. Simon Tam's a surgeon not a neuro-psych he won't be able to clear her. Whatever he does she won't be right 'til she's free."

"So this de-conditioning will help your stability?"

"Can't not. Mind you it won't cure us entirely. Nothing will. Can't be psychic and sane at the same time - that much is certain. But there are all kinds of crazy. If it just gets more controllable we'll be happy."

"Maybe you could stop being psychic?" Ben suggested tentatively.

She shook her head. "Don't think so. Not with the changes they made in our brains. We think we're stuck with it. It's got its good points."

"Mmmm." said Ben dubiously. Then: "By the way, we've got metered water on this boat."

Sonya grinned. "We know. We saved up our allowances to fill the tub. Jade said soaking in hot water would be therapeutic."

"Didn't seem like it was doing you much good last night." he observed.

"No, but it's helped other times. You missed reveille - and breakfast."

Ben glanced at the chrono, it read 0932. "So I have. Guess we'll have a short lesson today." he pulled himself out of the seat. "Have to get dressed and eat first."

"You do have good legs." Sonya said. "Pretty blue eyes too."

"Thanks." Ben said again, making a mental note not show off said limbs again if he could help it. Last thing they needed was an adolescent crush or two to further complicate their lives.

After that Ben slept on the bridge two nights a week, or tried to. And tried even harder not to think about what was going on in his girls' bunkroom at those times. Sonya's good spirits didn't last. She took to sitting in the living area, knees tucked beneath her chin, rocking gently back and forth. She answered if you spoke to her but what she said made no kind of sense.

Jade was in no better case. She talked almost continuously; spouting medicalese in a funny gruff voice and Chinese in her own, debating and arguing with herself and taking no notice of what went on around her. Cody pretty much took over the cooking.

Moon started painting her face like a carnival mask - different each day - and carrying a big stuffed doll, painted to match, everywhere she went but she at least had moments when she seemed halfway rational - only problem was Ben wasn't quite sure when those moments were.

"They're dredging all kind of nasty stuff out of Sonya's head," she explained, "that's her problem. Jade's is having to think like Dr. Falkener most of the time."

The twins at least stayed relatively 'solid' as the girls put it. Chasing each other, shrieking, up and down the ship wasn't all that abnormal behavior for kids - was it?

Cody turned into quite the little caregiver; wrapping their two problem girls' unresisting fingers round a spoon at mealtimes and getting it moving between plate and mouth; making then take notice of him instead of staying wrapped in their own private nightmares, and not getting fazed when Sonya didn't make sense or Jade talked to him in a man's voice.

When Ben could spare the time from worrying about his girls he worried about his son. Cody was so young, what would all the craziness do to his development? He was turning so serious and responsible that Ben found himself depending on his boy to keep the boat running smooth - was that good or was it bad?

Hephaestion, largest Vulcan's dozen-odd port and industrial centers, was wrapped in one of its periodic murky brown fogs the day the Angel docked. Ben had waved ahead so handlers and an appraiser were on hand to welcome their cargo.

The appraiser eyed the lead lined crates passing under his nose appreciatively. "Always a market for trans-uranics," he said, "no buyer?"

Ben shook his head. "This is a free cargo. Thought I'd put it up for bid."

"Wise move." the other man agreed. "With a little luck you might double or even triple your investment."

"Can hope." Ben shrugged. "I've got a new cargo to buy, how much credit will you allow?"

The appraiser sucked his stylus. "four forty?"

Ben let his eyebrows rise and his lip curl scornfully. "That an offer or a joke?"

The other man shrugged. "Six-forty then. If the bidding goes higher than that you'll have a nice little bundle of cash to play with."

Ben pretended to consider then said grudgingly. "Guess I'll have to settle for that."

The appraiser did things to his counter and extracted a credit chip. "There you are. Good trading."

"Good trading." Ben replied.

Inside the boat his crew were just finishing lunch. Sonya had curled back into her ball, rocking rhythmically, and Jade was looking blankly at the plates Cody piled in her hands, her inner dialogue cut off for the moment at least.

He turned her around to face the kitchen. "Put 'em in the sink. The sink." and gave her a little push to get her started.

Ben watched her sleep walk into the kitchen with a frown between his brows. Maybe it was time he called a halt to these proceedings of theirs - for a time at least. "Cody."

his son came over. "I'm going to leave you in charge of Sonya and Jade," Ben told him quietly. He'd expected protests but Cody just nodded.

"They're in no shape to go out." he agreed and squared his shoulders. "I'll take care of them."

Ben's heart ached with a mix of pride and sorrow. "That's my boy. I'll take Moon and the twins with me." two crazy girls was burden enough for a ten year old.

Heads turned as they walked down the streets and Ben had to admit that his threesome of charges would attract attention on brighter worlds than workaday Vulcan. Moon stalked alongside him in a strappy little black dress with stout laced boots below the floaty hem and a gauzy plum paisley shawl draped over her skinny shoulders. Ben hadn't needed a degree in neuro-psychology to know better than to try to separate her from her doll and both their faces were painted with green masks around the eyes picked out in gilt, a gold crescent above the brows and bright blue lips.

The twins skipped along behind, hand in hand, chattering cheerfully. Kimi wearing a bejeweled t-shirt, short frilly shirt and lots of glass bangles, while Keri was draped in a gauzy sequined dress, hanging limp on her thin frame, with several long bead necklaces wound around her neck and twisted into her hair.

Warehouses loomed dimly through the pollution stained fog that swallowed up the staring passersby within a few paces. Luckily Ben was used to such conditions and could find where they were going by habit and instinct.

They climbed a metal stair to an office on the second floor. A clerk looked up expectantly from his keyboard as they entered.

"I'm interested in buying." Ben told him.

The clerk pressed a button and a stout, graying woman emerged from the inner office. "What are you in the market for?" she asked briskly.

"Refined metals."

"Right."

She led the way through a door, down another stair and into an aladdin's cave of gleaming metal ingots, bars and bricks. Oohs and ahs came from his girls bringing a smile to Ben's lips. They weren't too crazy to appreciate treasure.

"What kind of metals interest you?" the manager asked him.

"Tool steel mostly, others suitable for house wares - and some gold and silver I think."

Suddenly Sonya stopped rocking. "Orange and Black." she said, eyes wide.

Cody looked up from his story-book. "What?"

"Orange and Black." Sonya repeated, looking at the lock hatch.

Jade's two voices stopped their dialogue. "They've found us." she announced. And at that moment the lock signal sounded.

Cody flung himself at the controls, sealed both doors and evacuated the air from the lock. "That'll hold them." he told the two scared looking girls. "They'll try the loading bay next." He ran aft and fixed the big cargo lock the same way. "Don't worry," he told his charges coming back into the living space, "they can't get in now."

Hammering sounded bell-like on the outer hatch. Cody bit his lip. "They can't get in without cutting," he said more to himself than the girls, "and they can't do that without being noticed." still... He went into his father's room, dug out his beamer and strapped it on, the belt on the very last notch but still sagging, then went back to the girls.

A booming sound came aft from the cargo hold. "It's gonna be all right." Cody told his scared looking charges, soft little jaw as hard as it could go. "I'll protect you."

Ben finally decided on seventeen tons of tool steel; four tons each of chromium, copper, nickel and tin; and a final ton divided between gold, silver and platinum. After the usual polite dickering he handed over his credit chip and turned to look for his girls.

Moon was perched on a pyramid of lead bricks engaged in serious conversation with her doll. The twins were building a tower of gold and silver ingots singing about pieces of eight and dead men's chests.

The Manager followed his glance. "They quite right?" she asked frowning.

Ben gave her a bland look. "'Course, why do you ask?" not giving her a chance to answer her raised his voice. "Moon, twins, time to go." they promptly gathered at his side. "Delivery tomorrow, cargo slip 84." he said to the manager.

"84." she repeated, eyes still fixed bemusedly on his girls.

"Good trading with you." Ben said, then to his charges. "All right girls, back to the boat."

Now a buzzing was coming from the outer lock hatch. Sonya and Jade crouched behind the kitchen counter, Cody stood in front of it beamer aimed at the door. He still didn't think they could get in - but just in case...


	7. Hunters and Hunted

The Angel's docking slip was swarming with port police. Ben speeded up, visions of murder and mayhem dancing in his head.

A massive official looking person intercepted him. "Captain Boykin?"

"That's right," Ben answered, eyes on his boat, "what happened here?"

"Seems like somebody tried to break into your ship."

That got Ben's full attention. "Who? Why?"

The officer shrugged. "No idea, they ran before we showed. Smart boy you've got there, he vacuum sealed both locks before waving us and didn't open till we'd identified ourselves."

"Thanks." Ben said, mind still racing. "Any damages?"

"Not so far as we can see. Might want to check over your circuitry though."

"Yeah, we'll do that."

"You did real good, son." Ben said a little later, after Cody still draped in the gunbelt had given him a blow by blow of what had happened.

"Sonya and Jade said it was the Orange and Blacks." the boy added, beaming.

Both girls nodded emphatically. The shock seemed to have solidified them nicely.

Moon was shaking her head, and so were the twins. "Can't be." Keri said. "No way they could have caught up with us this soon."

"Maybe they didn't." said Ben. All six kids looked at him. " You've been laying false trails by dropping credit-chips to be found and used by others - right?" The girls nodded in unison. Ben sighed. "One of the finders must have gotten spooked by your Orange and Blacks and decided to hide in the mines."

"We don't understand." said Kimi.

Ben explained: "The mines here on Vulcan are always hungry for workers. They ask for no papers and are real co-operative about filling out new ones. A term in the mines is a good way to change identities."

"Oh." this time it was Keri. "We didn't know that."

"No reason why you should." Ben soothed. "Just plain bad luck we should be here at the same time. I think maybe you should tell me exactly who these 'Orange and Blacks' of yours are?"

It was Kimi who answered: "We don't really know, they're who the Alliance sent to catch us but they're not Alliance personnel. They wear Orange and Black so that's what we call them."

"And skulls in their ears." said Moon.

Kimi nodded. "That's right. Little gold skulls in one ear."

"And their heads are shaved and they have a sort of tattoo right about here." added Keri pointing to her hair line.

Great. "Sounds like you've got the Heng-te after you." Cody flinched. Five pairs of puzzled girlish eyes urged Ben to continue. "They're high class hired enforcers, you name it they do it up to and including assassination."

Kimi tilted her head. "You've met them?"

"God no!" Ben said with some vehemence. "But I've heard of them. They're considered pretty fearsome."

It was Moon who spoke. "They're good, but not as good as us."

Ben surely did hope so. "Okay," he said briskly, "the port police have agreed to set a watch over us, which might stop our friends if they're trying to be subtle-like. I've done my dealing, we'll all stay buttoned up snug in the 'Angel' 'til it's time to leave."

Six heads nodded.

"Jade, I'll thank you to cancel tonight's session. I want you and Sonya to try to solidify yourselves if you can - we'll need all hands if anything further happens."

Two heads nodded. At least they'd heard him.

"Moon, monitor every frequency you can reach, if something's planned against us maybe we can catch an inkling early."

She picked herself up and headed for the set on the bridge. Ben noted she'd left dolly behind.

"Right, everybody else, back to work. Boat don't maintain herself."

Jade frowned hard, as if trying to remember somewhat, then turned and went into the kitchen.

Sonya just looked confused, one of the twins took her by the hand. "C'mon, Sonya, you can help us." and the three of them headed aft to the engine room.

"Cody, put the gun back where you found it." as the boy turned to go. "Oh and son," he looked back, "you did real good, but as a rule it's better to shoot from cover."

The ten year old nodded seriously. "I'll remember that."

Ben hoped he wouldn't have to, but he wouldn't bet a wooden credit on it.

He elected to sit up that night, Moon skimming the frequency band next to him, but nothing happened. Their new cargo arrived bright and early and loaded without incident. Then the fueling truck came by and topped off their tanks. And at lunchtime a messenger arrived with a credit ticket for their old cargo.

Ben brought it back to the table to read, and whistled. "Clear profit of four hundred - not bad for a single run."

"That's a lot of money." said Sonya, who'd started taking notice of things again.

He shook his head ruefully. "Not when you're running a ship. Still it's a nice little nest egg no question."

"We're going to have to cash it." said Moon.

"Definitely. Don't want your friends tracking us by data trail."

"We'll take it." Moon stood up and the rest of the girls followed suit

Ben frowned. "Don't you think wandering around the dockside might be a trifle dangerous for you girls, things being what they are?"

All five shook their heads. "Won't attack the boat if we're outside it." said Jade in her own voice.

"Go for us." added Sonya

Moon smiled one of her thin, nasty smiles. "Then we'll get 'em."

But Ben didn't like the idea of his girls using themselves as bait - so he determined to go along.

Cody was left to sulk alone in the boat, with strict order to open to nobody but Ben's ownself.

As it happened the walk to the exchange was medium long, and completely uneventful, as was the walk back.

"Guess our friends don't want to try anything in front of witnesses." Ben observed, knots in his belly untying.

"Guess so." Moon seemed disappointed.

The other girls looked to have forgotten all about the Heng te. Jade floated along in her bubble, arms outstretched to keep passerbys at a distance. Sonya played cat's cradle with one of her necklaces and the twins skipped merrily along, hand in hand.

As they came up on the Angel's docking slip Ben veered aside. The girls veered with him. "I'm just going to make a last check of our cargo before the buyer claims it - no need for you to come along." he told them.

Moon's pale eyes slanted at him sidelong. "Yes there is."

That should have warned him - but it didn't. Afterwards he reflected he must be getting slow witted with age.

Ben's thumb-print opened the little personnel door and lights came up automatically as they went in. They cleared the outer circle of high piled crates, came into the more open middle - and suddenly there were Heng te everywhere; men and women both dressed alike in dark orange uniforms with black harness and gunbelt over, the ideogram for 'hunter' tattooed on their smooth heads. They surrounded Ben and his girls at floor level and a half dozen more were poised on crates aiming weapons of various kinds down upon them.

"Stand as you are!" a cadaverous chum ordered.

The girls froze, eyes darting, and Ben noted the Heng te fronting him was looking over his shoulder at them - a mistake. He grabbed the woman's extended gun arm and pulled her into a neck lock swinging her round as a shield. Projectiles thunked into her body and she went limp as he twisted the gun free and took out one of the shooters on the crates.

But his girls were already in motion: Sonya took a running leap flattening two men with a spectacular double kick; Keri dropped below the fire line in a perfect split then curled one leg around to slice the feet out from under the nearest Heng te; A woman grabbed Kimi from behind and she kicked backward over her shoulder knocking her assailant cold; Jade downed one man using the edge of her hand like blade and threw another right into his comrades fire; Moon kicked a woman in the throat then hooked backward with the same leg to catch a man in the side while cold-cocking a third Heng te with a straight right.

Ben dropped his shield and rolled backward over a crate and into cover, a bullet and beam both whizzing over his feet as he did so. He picked off two of the remaining shooters then a wire looped over his head, digging into his flesh and choking his breath. He struck backward with the butt of his gun but failed to connect, things started to go dark... Then he was lying on the floor, gasping for breath, Jade standing over him and a body draped over some cargo at an angle impossible for an intact spine. The girl didn't spare him a glance, just leaped over him onto a crate took her bearings and sprang on some other poor shnook.

Lying comfortable on his back Ben had a pretty good view of the proceedings. There seemed to have been some twenty or thirty Heng te - and it wasn't anywhere near enough. The highly trained enforcers lasted a bit longer than the 'jackers had - but not much. His girls were here, there and everywhere; striking out with feet and hands, punching, snapping, throwing, and making occasional use of dropped weapons, fragments of crate, trade goods and so forth.

Ben lay at his leisure taking note of their various styles. The twins tended to work in tandem, graceful as toe dancers and using a lot of dancer-like moves. Sonya on the other hand was downright acrobatic, jumping and back flipping, hand-springing and cartwheeling fighting as much with feet as hands. The other two girls favored more conventional martial arts techniques: Moon's style was flamboyantly wushu but Jade's had an economical karate flavor to it.

Two minutes later the last of the Heng te lay broken and bleeding on the floor and the five girls gathered round Ben.

"You all right?" Keri asked, sounding worried.

"Chivalry," Ben informed them, still on his back, "is stone dead. From now on I intend to restrain my gallant instincts and allow you girls to handle any donnybrooks that come our way."

"That would be smart." said Moon.

"Be fair," said Kimi, "if Ben hadn't distracted them we could've gotten hurt."

Moon nodded. "True enough."

Ben climbed to his feet and gave his 'lil darlings a concerned once-over. "Any of that blood yours?"

They looked down at themselves, seeming to notice the liberal red splashes staining them from head to toe for the first time.

"No." Sonya answered and the rest nodded agreement.

"What do we do?" Jade asked.

Ben looked around at the wreckage, organic and inorganic and grimaced. "We leave now, right this minute, before the port police find this mess and start asking questions."


	8. And So We Bid A Fond Farewell

The minute the Angel cleared atmo they appeared, first as bright spots on the scope then twinkly little stars visible through the canopy ports.

"Interceptors." Ben grunted, half to himself, then: "Strap yourselves in tight, kids, I plan to do some moving." The girls headed aft, Cody slipped into the co-pilot's seat and started snapping buckles. "And what do you think you're doing?" Ben asked, dividing his attention between son and 'cepters.

Eyes like his gave back his very own determined stare. "I'm relief pilot." Cody reminded him. "Sonya's in no shape to fly shotgun so it's gotta be me."

"So it does." Ben agreed, resigning his paternal misgivings to the nethermost hell. "Port firing controls are the red buttons next to the stick, try not to shoot off our tail."

Cody grinned, showing his missing tooth. "We don't have a tail."

"Good, one less thing to worry about." Ben's attention focused on the oncoming fighters, close enough to eyeball now. "Here we go!"

The Angel rolled sideways, back into atmo and the five interceptors dived right after in diamond formation.

"They're breaking." Ben observed as they split to englobe. "They're trying to force us down - of course they want our lil' darlings alive..." There were interceptors above and on four sides. "Gunner, you may fire at will."

"Yessir!" Cody squinted at the target scope, the lines aligned and he pressed the red button with his thumb. A beam lanced out hitting the engine block on the 'cepter directly in front. It proceeded to wobble while vomiting black smoke, peeled out of formation dropping downwards to an emergency landing.

"Nice shot son!" Ben gunned ahead through the hole in the formation, pulled back the stick into an immelman, flying inverted over the 'cepters scattering unaimed fire, front and back, beam and projectile, with his left hand. Cody enthusiastically followed suit, gleefully pounding his red button.

The 'cepters scattered in all directions, somewhat punctured and burned, "Weren't expecting us to be armed." Ben said in satisfaction. "Now they know they'll be shooting to disable rather than kill. That give us an advantage."

"Yessir." Cody said, eyes shining.

The Angel, unlike the interceptors, had been designed to maneuver in atmo, her stubby wings and aerodynamic design gave her an edge, while the 'ceptors lost both maneuverability and were much more likely to stall out having not been designed for the low speed of atmo combat.

Still they gave it the old Academy try, the four survivors regrouping and swinging back to come at them in formation. Ben grinned a little. He knew what they meant to try and wasn't about to fall for it. Once again he looped out of their way, this time splitting the S to pass below, scattering his fire like before. Another 'ceptor started vomiting smoke and dropped out of the fight.

As the remainder struggled to realign themselves Ben began to 'scissor', pitching the Angel up and down in a vertical zig-zag. The fighters attempted to follow suit but had not been designed for such maneuvers in atmo. After a few seconds of this Ben found himself in attack position and fired a shell right up the 'ceptor's tail-pipe. Then turned his victory roll through the fireball into a rollaway attack that lined him up behind anther 'ceptor, a second fireball quickly resulted.

The phone pinged. "Captain," it was one of the twins no telling which over wires, "engine tolerances pushing into the red."

Cody held the phone towards his father as Ben continued to maneuver. "Understood. Just one more out there."

Unfortunately that one was to give more trouble than the other three combined. No doubt he was a cunning oldster rather than a young hotshot as he knew the tricks as well as Ben himself, even if his boat wasn't as suited to perform them.

He tried to break but Ben broke with him, the two boats skimming side by side, which was not exactly to the Angel's advantage as she had no side-guns but the 'ceptor did, powdering her with small bore projectiles.

The twins were strapped to their chairs before the main board in the engine room. Keri squealed as her half started sparking but recovered almost instantly, hitting buttons to engage the necessary shut downs and surge protection.

Next to her Kimi was already running a diagnostic. "Damage minimal." she reported. "There may be a slight loss of power though."

"Understood." was Ben's laconic reply.

The three older girls were harnessed to their bunks. Sonya and Moon reacted to the jolt and the brief flicker of the lights. Jade, intent on a book, did not.

The 'ceptor broke starboard, Ben rolled port, climbing, then leveled and tried to turn behind his opponent.

The fighter started scissoring, climbing in an attempt to negate Ben's speed advantage.

The two boats jostled for position, getting in shots as best they could. But in the end Ben's timing and technique proved the better and a third fireball lit up Vulcan's smoky skies.

Cody cheered. "Yeah, Dad!"

"And here comes the High Guard, just after the nick of time." Ben remarked, glancing at the quickly converging dots on his scope. "Time to go."

The Angel screamed upward in a steep climb, hull glowing with the friction of her speed, shot clear of atmo and headed for deep space as fast as she could fly.

Ben set co-ordinates then pulled down his phone. "Okay, all, you can unstrap now." turned to Cody. "Good work, son."

His boy's eyes were shining with hero-worship. "The Heng te never had a chance against you!"

Ben smiled crookedly. "As turned out. We might not be so lucky next time."

"Skill ain't luck." Cody reminded him and his father had to laugh at having one of his own favorite strictures thrown back in his teeth.

"True enough." he rumpled his boy's hair affectionately. "Get Jade and start dinner. I'm going back to see what damage was done to the engines."

He found Kimi and Keri well on top of things and justifiably pleased with themselves. "Couldn't have done better myself." was Ben's verdict after he'd checked over their temporary repairs. "This'll hold us fine until we get where we're going."

"Where's that?" Keri asked interested.

"Tell you all at dinner." he answered.

Ben waited 'til they were all gathered round the table and the food dished out before making his announcement. "I've set course for a world called Charity in Red system."

Cody brightened instantly. "Charity!" beaming he turned to the girls: "It's a great place, we have lots of friends there."

"And it's at the opposite end of the 'Verse from Vulcan." his father continued. "Which should break contact with the Heng te."

"Won't be leaving any more data trails." said Moon with satisfaction. "It'll be a lot harder for them to follow us from now on."

"Agreed." said Ben. "Especially as I intend to shift our registry to Charity." he turned to the rest of the girls to explain; "As it happened I didn't quite like your chosen name so I registered our 'Angel' here under her numbers on Fiddler's Rock. Your 'Black 'n Oranges' will be looking for BB239095 not 'The Angel of Wrath' out of Charity'.

Changed your mind about the name then." Moon gave him one of her chillingest smiles.

Ben gave it right back to her. "Strikes me as real appropriate - now."


End file.
